Coming Back (From the Dead)
by adragonsshadow
Summary: Another Fandom induced essay for school. All about coming back to life and includes descriptions of the Underworlds (Grecian and Egyptian mainly). Quick little thing I wrote.


White shimmering auras float around chattering about not known where they are and complaining about being trapped. One stands off to the side shining with more human like colors than the rest. A man in an expensive Italian suit ushers people into an elevator, as they disappear the ghost in the corner follows, unsure of why she's there. That ghost was me. I'm breaking thousands of mortal laws and a few immortal ones by telling you this. The place I'm describing is the Underworld, I prefer the Grecian cultural representation of it but it can also be Egyptian and Roman, the place where souls make their final journey to one of the three eternal fates, in Grecian culture anyways. They can go to Elysium, paradise for those who've done good deeds in their lives, the Fields of Asphodel, which include endless wandering, or the Fields of Punishment, eternal torture for those who have done wrong. This is not a story of how I came by that world; it is a merely a documentation of how hard it was to leave. People tend to believe the dead need the help of a stubborn mortal or Necromancer to come back to the world of the living, some might need their assistance but I didn't. Coming back from the dead was one of the most terrifying things I've had to do because I had to find a reason to come back, I had to actually escape the land of the dead, and I had to find a new life for myself.

Finding a reason to come back wasn't all that hard for me to find, I've been attached to being alive long enough to want to enjoy the freedom of life again. I've been told that once I've got an idea of what I want to do nothing can stop me, and I don't let anything stop me. I had left friends and family who were fighting a war so horrible that they needed all the support they could get, and I couldn't very well leave them fighting it alone. I also wanted to give my killers a taste of revenge, I knew my fate and where I wanted to go, and I did not want to get killed by the hands of a manipulative coward. Not to mention I have always had a feeling of guilt when I leave the people I care for, whether I left out of safety or fear. I was always one to restore order to the chaos that seemed to follow the fights; the destruction left in their wake was always my responsibility to clean up. Honestly, finding a reason to come back and putting all my will being that reason is not one of the hardest things I've had to do.

Sneaking past your parents to go to a party or get a snack is child's play compared to getting out of the underworld. All three civilizations had put up security to stop monsters from escaping, which makes the task of a ghost getting back to their body much more difficult. In Roman and Grecian Underworlds Thanatos (the god of the dead, literally Death) had been released and had started tracking down the souls who were attempting to get back to their bodies to avoid over population with the living. In the Egyptian Underworld, Osiris had come back and so were the Judges from the Hall of Judgment, so I couldn't exactly postpone my trial. Not to mention I knew Anubis fairly well and he knew when I had been buried, so he was expecting me and was the first to track me down. Along with run-ins with gods, demigods, Ra, and Chaos, I'm fairly surprised I made it out of the Underworld at all. Overall, breaking out of any Underworld takes a lot of work and determination and is a feat worthy of heroism.

Coming back from the dead is a simple matter compared to coming back from the dead after 12 years. Coming back into the land of the living was hard enough, I had to find my body and break out of the coffin my loved ones had buried me in. When I discovered it was still the 1900s I was relieved that I hadn't spent the better part of a century down there like a good friend, but I was horrified when I saw the war had been lost. I decided to be reborn, (Grecian ritual, after living three lives and achieving Elysium all three times you are able to get into the Isles of the Blessed, eternal paradise much better than Elysium) but I retained my memories from everything up until this point, a bit unusual for the rebirth process. All in all, I am content to be back because now I know I can change things for the better of the world.

Coming back to the land of the living was one of the most difficult challenges I've had to overcome because I had to find a reason to live, I had to get past the keepers of the dead, and I had to create a new life for myself after I discovered my old life was over. Finding a reason to live is a hard concept to grasp when you're living, but perfectly clear when you die, you know exactly what you wanted to do with your life and where you wanted to go with your fate. Breaking in and out of high security places is fairly difficult for a deceased escaping from their fate, it isn't done yet here I am, escaping your fate does nothing for your life but it can be changed if you have enough courage to change it yourself. Coming back after 12 years of feeling dead is not an experience I would like to repeat, I missed so much of the American civilization and the growth in the American people that I don't know who they are anymore. Necromancers and persuasive mortals aren't the only ones who can raise the dead; the dead are just content with being dead after a while. However, death isn't fun, easy, or peaceful, the 12 years I spent down there were the worst I can remember. Even now flashes of white alert the public of escaped souls and the Doors of Death come to a close. Death is unavoidable but sometimes unacceptable to the fate of the world. How did I die? That's another story.


End file.
